The Takoma Rec Center’s nature-inspired playground includes playhouses, log crawl tunnels, inclusive play elements and adult exercising equipment. This addition contributed to the charm of this neighborhood park in Washington, DC, next to an aquatic center.
The playground at Rosedale Recreation Center provides a fully inclusive play experience for children and families that visit. In addition to the extensive ramping system, which makes the play structure accessible to those in wheelchairs, the playground also offers many sensory-rich activities including playground climbers, slides, gliders and play panels. The inclusive playground was also designed to mimic many of the monuments located near the National Mall. Some of the signature design elements included are façades of the White House, U.S. Capitol, Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. Plus, components with hints of the Hirshhorn Museum, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Natural History Museum, and the Air and Space Museum were also built-in.
Palisades Recreation Center is home to a Native American-themed play structure that pays tribute to the Potomac River settlement. With many nature-inspired components sculpted from concrete, the playground offers lots of tactile play experiences. Additionally, customized safety surfacing helps complete the theme and encourage even more imaginative play.
Marine enthusiasts will love congregating at King Greenleaf Playground located in Washington, DC. With a lighthouse-themed play structure and wave-themed climbers, this playground design encourages imaginative play in kids of all ages. Even more, log steppers and rock climbers offer balance activities, swings deliver that high-flying feel that many kids love and rubberized playground safety surfacing provides easy access to the play environment. And playground designers didn’t forget about young children… there’s a play area devoted to kids ages 2 to 5 that encourages skill development.
There are endless opportunities of play at Francis Scott Key Elementary School’s nature-inspired playground, in Washington, D.C. This inclusive playground, ideal for 2-12 years old, includes an OmniSpin Spinner, from Landscape Structures, providing children of all abilities valuable vestibular sensory stimulation and encourages interactive play. Even more, the trolley theme structures pay tribute to the historic trolley system that used to service the near-by Palisades neighborhood.
Sparks@Play’s expertise and passion for play is evident in this project’s planning, design and site preparation.
Harrison Recreation Center is home to music-themed playstructures, which honors the strong history of jazz in the neighborhood. Located in the U Street Jazz district of Washington, DC, this signature playground has become a gathering space for children ages 2 to 12, their families and the entire community.
As part of the Districts historic circle forts, the reconstruction of Fort Greble playground, in Washington, DC, provides a modern interpretation of fort, with elevation changes and tall towers children have a great vantage point from their fort.
Grommet Island Park is situated adjacent to the boardwalk in Virginia Beach at the Rudee Inlet. This one of a kind, fully accessible beach front playground offers double wide ramps for easy access, play elements specifically designed for wheelchair access, and access to sand play, in addition to great climbers and slides.
The Indian Creek Playground at Berwyn Heights, Prince George’s County, MD, provides a history lesson in Native American tribes throughout the US. Themed play equipment includes a canoe, drum, totem pole, and other items with descriptive information to educate children while they play.
Watkins Regional Park in Upper Marlboro, Md., is an 800+-acre park that attracts more than 1 million visitors throughout the course of a year. Part of the reason the park sees so many visitors is because the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (MNCPPC) hosts many community events there. The other is the recently updated play space.
“This was a huge playground project, and we wanted to do a cool themed playground,” explained Brenda Iraola, landscape architect supervisor with MNCPPC. “A staff member came up with the idea for the Wizard of Oz, and I designed the space with two other landscape architect’s (Chris Colvin and Rene Albacete) to create a unique theme based on the original Oz storybook, which the famous movie was later based on and is seen all across the world.”
A Design Found in Storybooks
After completing other large-scale successful themed playgrounds including the Indian Creek Playground and South Bowie Community Center, Brenda reached out to Sparks@Play to discuss her team’s ideas.
Stephanie Sparks
CFO, Sparks@Play
“One of the interesting components we used to make this playground come alive was the poured-in-place safety surfacing,” said Brenda. “We decided to make children feel like they were actually in the storybook walking on the yellow brick road, which Dorothy follows to find her new friends.”
Promoting Literacy through Play
One of the unique things about the Wizard of Oz-themed playground is that Brenda and her team incorporated learning elements into the fun. Toto’s doghouse was designed to help teach kids ages 2 to 5 about colors. Climbing grips were custom manufactured as dog bones in various colors and labeled so can learn color names as they climb. Even more, the hot air balloon-themed playstructure has word search panels so kids can find the important words in the storybook—Wizard, Oz, Scarecrow, Dorothy, etc. And it offers an opportunity for younger kids to get more familiar with their ABCs. The theme and the activities throughout the playground help promote literacy and encourage children to read the storybook. Replica pages from the 1899 book were placed as signs in the playground to represent what happened in the storybook.
The Main Attraction
The new playground at Watkins Regional Park opened in July 2015, which pulled visitors from all over Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. And since its opening, the playground has been the main attraction at the park.
Darrell Oden
Maintenance Superintendent, MNCPPC
“We have 80 to 90 kids playing on the playground at any single point throughout the day,” explained Darrell Oden, maintenance superintendent at MNCPPC. “Along with the playground upgrades, we painted the five existing shelters to resemble barns and upgraded the asphalt pathway to make access easier. The playground has truly become the destination point within the park.”
